"With crucial assistance from the military wing of the Turkish Kurds, the PKK, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga has apparently held off ISIS. It seems that the PKK are also the most significant force that rescued the Yazidi from extermination and are holding off ISIS in Syria, including the crucial defense of Kobane. Meanwhile Turkey has escalated its attacks against the PKK, with US tolerance if not support. It appears that Turkey is satisfied to watch its enemies -- ISIS and the Kurds -- killing one another within eyesight of the border, with awful consequences likely if the Kurds cannot withstand the ISIS assault on Kobane and beyond."

"One of the few American journalists to have really worked in the area, Kevin McKiernan, once described a mountain in northern Iraq called Mount Kandil. He said it has two sides: on one side there are terrorists, on the other side there are freedom fighters. They’re exactly the same people: They’re Kurdish nationalists. But one side faces Turkey, so they’re terrorists. The other side faces Iran, so they’re freedom fighters. Apparently, they’re pretty well integrated. It’s reported that the guerrillas on the mountain have regular commercial and other interactions with the general surrounding population."

"Turkey must find its place if, of course, it can heal its internal sores, and none is more malignant than the perennial Kurdish issue... There do appear to be some real prospects with recent negotiations despite criminal efforts to disrupt them"

"Turkey and the Kurds. That's one of the most severe human rights atrocities of the 1990s, continuing in fact... The Kurds have been miserably oppressed throughout the whole history of the modern Turkish state but things changed in 1984. In 1984, the Turkish government launched a major war in the Southeast against the Kurdish population. And that continued. In fact it's still continuing.

"If we look at US military aid to Turkey-which is usually a pretty good index of policy-Turkey was of course a strategic ally so it always had a fairly high level of military aid. But the aid shot up in 1984, at the time that the counterinsurgency war began. This had nothing to do with Cold War, transparently. It was because of the counterinsurgency war. The aid remain high, peaking through the 1990s as the atrocities increased. The peak year was 1997. In fact in the single year 1997, US military aid to Turkey was greater than in the entire period of 1950 to 1983 when there were allegedly Cold War issues. The end result was pretty awesome: tens of thousands of people killed, two to three million refugees, massive ethnic cleansing with some 3500 villages destroyed-about seven times Kosovo under NATO bombing, and there's nobody bombing in this case, except for the Turkish air forces using planes that Clinton sent to them with the certain knowledge that that's how they would be used.

"The United States was providing about 80 percent of Turkey's arms-and that means heavy arms. Since you and I are not stopping it-and we're the only ones who can-the Clinton administration was free to send jet planes, tanks, napalm, and so on, which were used to carry out some the worst atrocities of the 1990s. And they continue. Regularly there are further operations carried out both in southeastern Turkey and also across the border in Northern Iraq, attacking Kurds there. There the attacks, with plenty of atrocities, are taking place in what are called "no-fly zones" in which the Kurds are protected by the United States from the temporarily wrong oppressor. The operations in northeast Iraq are similar in character to Israel's operations in Lebanon over the 22 years when it was occupying Southern Lebanon in violation of Security Council resolution but with the authorization of the United States, so therefore it was okay. During that period they killed-nobody really knows because nobody counts victims of the United States and its friends-but it's roughly on the order of 45,000 it would seem over those years judging by Lebanese sources. In any event, non-trivial. And the operations in northern Iraq are kind of similar. That's the no-fly zone.

"Without going into further details-how is all this dealt with in the United States? Very simple. Silence. You can check and see-I urge you to do so. Occasionally, it's brought up by disagreeable people. And when it is brought up and can't be ignored, there is a consistent reaction: self-declared advocates of human rights deplore what they call "our failure to protect the Kurds," and so on. Actually we are "failing to protect the Kurds" roughly in the way that the Russians are "failing to protect the people of Chechnya." Or it's claimed that the US government was unaware of what was happening. So when Clinton was sending a huge flow of arms to Turkey-in fact Turkey became the leading recipient of US military aid in the world (I'll qualify that in a minute) during this period -and his advisers didn't realize that the arms were going to be used. When they were supplying 80 percent of the arms to Turkey-increasing as the war increased-it just never occurred to them that these were really going to be used for the war that was then going on and that coincided very closely with the arms flow. The disagreeable folk who bring the matter up and suggested otherwise are lacking in "nuance," sophisticated commentators observe."

How did you got into contact with YPG?
I logged into Facebook and wrote a message to YPG. Two messages later I was told to fly to Suleymania and I was given a telefonnumber I should call when I am there.
[...]
In Suleymania I came into a save house and later we went into the mountains for the training.

How went your deployment?
It was different for me than for most other internationals. The kurds took it very seriously that I was there for political reasons. They call all internationals "Emeriki", Americans. But I was not an "American", but a revolutionary - that made me a heval. Friend of the party. So I was treated differently. In training I met another German, who was already there for three years. He died recently, today I know that his name was Kevin Joachim. We got along very well and so he arranged for me to get into his unity. So I came almost directly to the first frontline. From day one we were 120 meters away fomr Daesh.
[...]
After the liberation of Tel Abiad I switched the unit again and then went to the "International Freedom Batallion", that is only constituted by international volunteers.

Why did you change the unit?
In my second unit I mage a lot of negative experiences and I learned a lot about war. War is a very intensive condition, that changes you very harshly. And there I've seen things that I didn't like and that I couldn't arrange with my believes and attitudes. It was mainly about looting, destruction and mistreatment of prisoners. Mainly the looting was the problem. I then left this unit, because I realized talking to the commander that this wouldn't change in this unit.

In the international "Tabur" (unit) I then found what I was looking for. They were all volunteers and idealists like me. We held the surroundings clean and were always nice to the civilians. We did what I was expecting from the YPG in general.

Did your international unit had other tasks and were you taken seriously?
We were a part of the YPG but independent, we had our own emblem and so on. And with a strong political attitude, that the YPG has in general but not every single unit. Unfortunately we had ridiculously high losses within two weeks. After the first two incidences, where we lost people, the front commander came to us and said "You've shed your blood, this is now your war too". Before we had the feeling that we weren't taken very seriously. We got only minimal equipment from YPG and we had to really fight to get cars. After that it was different and we were taken very seriously. We had fought, we had lost people, we proved ourselves.

How was your fighting organized?
The YPG is a very decentralized army and very chaotic. There is logistics, but it works very bad. In principle you have nothing. You have a uniform, vest, five magazines, two grenades and your rifle. If its working you get a few tomatos, cucumber, bread and cigarettes from logistics - if the truck finds you and if they have enough. Consequently the fighting is very chaotic.

But there is a lot of air support. Without them the offensives wouldn't worked out. Partly this were very intensive bombardments, that supported us strongly. We never attacked without a bombardment before. That's why we never met real resistance in the beginning. [...]

Why did you decided to return in the end?
Well, I've seen a lot, did a lot, learned a lot about my self, the revolution and politics. I changed the unit two times and after the second change I said, that I'll go home soon. I won't put on with this anymore. I accept that this is war, I accept that this must be done and I accept that what happens at the front is not representative for everything that happens there. I still think that but personally I don't want to put up with this. Also I realized that the probability to die at the front is way higher than I thought. It's a fortune that I am still alive. They said this was because of my abilities and in a few situations this may was the case. But in a lot of situations it was just luck. I was ready for the risk, but I don't want to die. And I realized that with the political work I do here in Europe I can maybe do more good things than there - and stay alive.

Did you expected to see things like looting, destruction and mistreatments?
I should have expected this, but I didn't thought about it. That's why I was surprised. And we were also taught in training that this is forbidden and won't be tolerated.

Have theses experiences disillusioned you in regard to the PKK and YPG?
No, not at all. I don't see an error in the structure, I wouldn't blame the YPG for this. These are things that happen in a war. Often this has to do with revenge. I was always in units of turkish Kurds but the syrian Kurds had a, partly understandable, hate towards the arabic villagers. To loose friends in a war changes you. All this dead around you. This is all just very dirty, very bloody and emotionally very intensive.

By the way I don't know if it is the same reporter from vice news. but two people from vice is detained 2 days ago in Diyarbakır while trying to report on declarations of autonomy. They are still in prison as far as I know.

Amnesty International has called for the release of three VICE News journalists who have been arrested in Turkey accused of working with ISIS.

Police sources confirmed to Amnesty that the journalists had been detained on suspicion of assisting ISIS, despite initial reports that they had been arrested for allegedly reporting without official press accreditation.

Yeah different. anyway now they are arested on charges supporting both IS and PKK at the same time by the way, they will wait for their trial to be released at least now. Of course if the judge decides this charge is bullshit. If not they will be sentenced for "involvement in terrorist activities, despite not being themselves members of terrorist organisation".

Christians in Rojava are not happy with current PYD
The signed christian organisations sent a letter to PYD to demand these:
1) The law about "abandoned migrant property"should be abolished. It is used against minorities who are escaped due to war. but now with this law government is taking them from the people. this contradicts one of the most basic human rights; property.
2) Nobody in any case could be considered a "traitor, just because they left their home.
3) The policy of "redistribution of immigrant properties" is actually a theft of people's property in the name of helping the poor.
4) Basically these policies will prevent from those christians who escaped to come back.
5) As many of the christians now declaring they will not sell their properties, is lawful internationally. Government should stop saying this is illegal.

Apart from this property issues, Christians also criticise forced conscription, taxes and intervention into the courses of christian schools.

Warren knows very well where the weapons/ammunition given to the Syrian Arab Coalition of the Syrian Democratic Forces ends up.

Quote:

"Warren said the operation was backed by 17 U.S.-led coalition air strikes, killing 79 Islamic State fighters and destroying Islamic State weapons systems around al-Houl, near the Iraqi border. "While this is not a large tactical action, we believe the operation demonstrates the viability of our program to provide support to these forces," Warren told Pentagon reporters. Asked whether this meant more air drops of weaponry, either arms or ammunition, Warren said: "On the weapons resupply, yes. The answer is yes."

You'll note that the letter that is signed on by organizations is more reserved in its claims than the article that leads AINA. AINA seems heavily influenced by David William Lazar (or DWL is influenced heavily by AINA). Lazar is dogmatically anti-Kurdish and anti-PYD to the extent that he basically just lies about things. He (and AINA) are also supportive of the Assad Regime.

The Kobanê Agricultural Council has decided to redistribute more than 10.000 hectares. Now that shouldn't impact Christian/Syriac/Chaldean/Armenian communities very much because there are few of those in Kobane canton. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Jazeera canton was also planning to engage in land redistribution. From the beginning of the revolution, TEV-DEM declared the abandoned government and bourgeois property as part of the commons and let people work it either individually or as part of cooperatives.

I've been meaning to post on the new PYD curricula for awhile. I've gone line by line through the longest anti-PYD articles and wrote an analysis. The short version is that TEV-DEM printed some schoolbooks in Kurdish, trained teachers on it, and encourages primary (elementary) education in mother tongue (they also push mother tongue education in Turkey). The Regime has responded by withdrawing the salaries of teachers teaching the new curricula (that is, teaching in Kurdish). So the Regime effectively fired those teachers and has threatened to shut schools down. In Afrin Canton, in addition to training teachers for the Kurdish curricula, they also prepared 100 teachers to teach in Arabic (Afrin has 1625 teachers for 306 schools). Now, that might be the right amount for Arabic mother tongue speakers plus other folks who want Arabic, because Afrin is super-majority Kurdish. Hasakah, isn't super-majority Kurdish. Also, I'd be surprised if in Hasakah TEV-DEM was forcing Syriacs to not get education in Syriac, etc...

What seems to have happened at the private Christian schools is that TEV-DEM offered the new materials particularly for the Kurdish children who were enrolled in the private schools. The private Christian schools refused to use those materials. Further, they then expelled the Kurdish students. There hasn't been a claim that TEV-DEM threatened to shut down the private schools at all... only the Regime has threatened to shut down schools for teaching in Kurdish.

Read the articles from SyriaDirect and ArabWeekly that aren't friendly to Kurdish mother tongue education, and you'll see what I'm saying.

Its interesting to note that TEV-DEM still tolerates private schools, and Kurdish attendance in private schools.

One funny thing is that the KDPS even had a protest against PYD/TEV-DEM for making more Kurdish language education possible. It seems KDPS prefers Arabic. The protests about curriculum have been on the small side.

Another issue brought by AINA is the Amal (Hope) Syriac Orthodox School being used by the YPG. AINA is claiming the YPG just took the school and thats it. That's not how it happened. The SAA/NDF took the school and used it as a military position. After the battle of Hasakah this past July-August 2015, the YPG took the school when the SAA/NDF abandoned it and used it for pretty much the same military purpose. After the battle, the YPG and SAA/NDF even negotiated over it and it was agreed to stay with the YPG. Its actual position is on the edge of regime controlled central Hasakah and YPG controlled territories. Without the YPG intervention in the battle this summer, central Hasakah could have been very well overrun by Daesh. So the talk that its in a safe area isn't particularly true.

Now, its unfortunate that schools get used as military structures in wars, but so do prisons, cement plants, any tall building. It seems that this fall, TEV-DEM has really been pushing to get the school system working well. I've marked the location of the Amal school on this map

If military contribution is any indicator of support, the largest Christian militia in Hasakah is the MFS. Its about 10 times the size of the Gozarto Protection Forces (the GPF is loyal to the regime and was recently flown by Russian aircraft to fight Daesh in Sadad, Homs). There are also other Christians in the HXP (which includes conscripts) and the YPG. The SUP is the dominant Syriac party in Hasakah and its been part of TEV-DEM since the beginning. You'll note that they haven't signed this document, nor has the European Syriac Union.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch which have been critical of a minority of YPG actions in regards to certain Arab and Turkemen villages did not criticize the YPG in regards to Christians at all.

"It's worth mentioning that nearly 35% of all real estate in the area is owned by Christians."
Its also worth mentioning that Christians do not make up 35% of the population of Hasakah. Further that it is probably only a minority of Christians that own much of that land.

The YPG is probably treating Christians better than any other armed faction in the Syrian civil war, and that is both part of their ideology and related to their close military alliance with the MFS (SUP).

If TEV-DEM is moving forward with land reform, putting more land into the commons, and expanding beyond just taking government farms and now also redistributing absentee landlord farms... that indicates revolutionary progress. I'd like to hear a lot more details about TEV-DEM's land reforms, but I don't think I trust the information coming from AINA and related sources about it.

Yeah Flint I guess you reflected on the real motives of this contra-land and property distribution news in name of christian minority very well. I hope PYD can do it according to its declared principles of democratic autonomy and its policies of cooperativisation for the benefit of the poor (whatever their ethnical background is.)

Also about your Reddit. The article you refuted point by point looks really stupid. The claim that Kurdish population does not sent their children to kurdish schools is like a joke. I know from Turkey this is a huge demand. Kurdish movement makes one-week of school boycott each year at the start of the educational year. That is so powerful in the kurdish cities that schools do not work in practice (Though this does not get covered in national press). I think this issue is one of the issues that local population (irrespective of their class background support) I can assume the willingness towards education in mother tongue is much more higher under Rojava self-government.

AINA is not a reliable news source. AINA constantly posts inconsistent articles and is usually full of click bait to gain international attention for our cause. If you do use content from AINA, take some time to confirm the information is genuine and that the right terminology is used to recall events.

KurdWatch, December 8, 2015 — In an interview on December 6, 2015 with the Sunday Times, the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, dismissed British Prime Minister David Cameron’s claim that there are 70,000 moderate Syrian rebels by declaring that there aren’t even 7,000 or even 10 moderates. On the question of how he would assess the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Kurds, he said: »The Kurds are fighting the terrorists with the Syrian army, in the same areas. [...] We sent them armaments, because they are Syrian citizens, and they want to fight terrorism. We do the same with many other groups in Syria, because you cannot send the army to every part of Syria.« Since the Democratic Union Party's (PYD) People's Defense Units (YPG) is the only armed Kurdish group in Syria, he can only be referring to the PYD when he says »the Kurds«.

Question 6: Not even the Kurds and the FSA for example, the free Syrian army?
.
President Assad:The Kurds are fighting the terrorists with the Syrian army, in the same areas.
.
Question 7: But they are also being supported and armed and trained and backed by the Americans to also launch, to fight ...
.
President Assad: Mainly by the Syrian army, and we have the documents. We sent them armaments, because they are Syrian citizens, and they want to fight terrorism. We do the same with many other groups in Syria, because you cannot send the army to every part of Syria. So, it is not only the Kurds. Many other Syrians are doing the same.

I mean, I'm not clear who these many other Syrians are that Bashar thinks are spontaneously rising up to support the SAA and regime affiliate forces (incl. Hezbollah & IRGC). But the proposition that the external arms and training to the SDF (including YPG/J and Jabhat al Akrad, Sutoro, Al-Sanadid) are being "mainly" provided by the Syrian army, rather than the US, seems pretty unlikely. SAA haven't exactly got lots of spare weapons and trainging resources to spare on forces other than those reliably under their command, it would seem.

Anyway, if by chance, all the serious observers of the conflict were wrong and Assad was actuall telling the truth, instead of talking waffle (as is more normal) would that mean that the "Kurds" were now tools of Russian rather than American imperialism? Or maybe both? (Now there's a conspiracy theory I'd like to see...)

The primary supplier of all rebels including Daesh and the Free Syrian Army in Syria has been the Syrian Arab Army. The primarily supplier of Daesh in Iraq has been the Iraqi army. The primary supplier of the Peshmerga in Iraq has been through Baghdad.

Its materially true in terms that many weapons of the SAA have ended up in the hands of the YPG. Some of those weapons came directly from seizing them from the regime, others come through purchasing them from intermediaries, others come as war spoils from defeating Daesh, etc... Its also true that many Kurds in Syria have been trained by the SAA when they were conscripts.

In Afrin, the YPG even manged to get a few old tanks from the regime. There are a few others they took from Daesh. They've even gotten some Humvees from Daesh.

The biggest things acquired from the regime, sometimes second hand from the Daesh, is the oil fields, the state-owned agricultural land, the Tishrin dam, the public education sector in Qamislo, Hasakah and Afrin.

So far, the largest amount of ammunition directly supplied to the YPG may have been a few weapons drops (primarily light weapons and ammunition) from the U.S. to the Arab forces allied with the YPG in the Syrian Democratic Forces. Opinion is much of that very limited supply went to the YPG. Before that, a small amount of ammunition was air dropped to the YPG towards the end of the siege of Kobane. Also, towards the end of the siege of Kobane KRG peshmerga (about 200 of them) arrived with heavy weapons, they have since left (and took their weapons with them). The YPG haven't been supplied with any heavy weapons such as the CIA TOW missile program.

That is that the Free Syrian Army that Guerre de Classe was so enthusiastic about at the start of this conflict has received far more U.S. made weapons either directly from the CIA or through a proxy like Jordan, Turkey or Saudi Arabia

The YPG is still struggling with their old Kalashnikovs and captured Dushka.

The Assad regime hasn't been even willing to release the artillery from the Hasakah artillery base to the YPG. SAA/NDF can't move outside of the YPG/SDF areas. The YPG/SDF have advanced the frontline in eastern Syria to Ash-Shaddadi. The only utility that artillery base in Hassakah now has would be in threatening the YPG in Hasakah city. One day, the YPG may still come to possess that base and its artillery. They might take it through encouraging desertion of the SAA, through diplomacy or through force of arms. When they do get hold of that artillery, folks shouldn't see it as being allied with Assad so much as forcing the regime to make yet another concession of territory and equipment to TEV-DEM/PYD/YPG/SDF.

Assad has said a lot of things to try and gain support of the YPG. He's said he's open to autonomy, etc... TEV-DEM and the PYD have both said that they see no place for Assad in a democratic future. They have also said they are open to a political/diplomatic solution to the Syrian Civil War. SDF is growing and part of that growth is taking in some Free Syrian Army groups.

It is true that the YPG/SDF do not have major clashes. Until very recently, Assad also wasn't shelling YPG held ares. Allegedly, that changed about a week ago.. There are also occasional skirmishes between the YPG and the NDF (the militia organized to support the SAA). What usually happens is the NDF picks a fight, the YPG returns fire, takes a few checkpoints or neighborhoods--then there is a ceasefire negotiated.

This may well all change in the future when the SDF frontlines are closer to the bulk of the SAA frontlines as the YPG/SDF secures northern Syria and pushes toward al-Bab and Aleppo. Or maybe that'll be the end of the fighting and the regime, the SDF and the Southern Front come up with a diplomatic solution.

Many of the folks in the PYD and TEV-DEM have direct experience with imprisonment and torture by the regime, after both the 2004 Qamislo uprising and also the general authoritarian nature of the state. That's true for Salih Muslim. Its also true for Rojîn Remo, Women’s Representative on the MSD and also on the 9-member Coordination Committee of the MSD.

I do wonder what the revolutionary communist position is on whether or not the YPG should be armed and where those arms could come from. If not the YPG feel free to abstract the question of armament to any future or past revolutionary group that find itself in a war.

I mean, I'm not clear who these many other Syrians are that Bashar thinks are spontaneously rising up to support the SAA and regime affiliate forces (incl. Hezbollah & IRGC).

He may be speaking of the NDF. He might be speaking of groups like Syrian Resistance. He might be talking about different Arab tribal groups or Druze militia like Jaysh al-Muwahhideen. Recently, the SAA has stopped conscripting Druze if they serve in a local Druze militia; which may also be a response to several Druze towns publicly stating they will not accept conscription into the SAA anymore. He might be talking about Syriac or Christian militias like Sootoro, Khabour Guards and the Gozarto Protection Force (that the Syrian airforce--maybe even the Russian airforce, flew across the country to defend some Christian villages in the west.)

Some of the NDF in Hasakah are literally locals in street clothes wearing flip fops armed with old Kalashnikovs. In Hasakah, some locals see joining the NDF as a way to OPPOSE the YPG.

The YPG has had many opportunities to ally with with the SAA. It would have been helpful to them in terms of arms and it may have even given them more local control in Hasakah and Qamislo. It hasn't done that for political reasons. One of the least of which is the paltry foreign aid it has received from anti-Assad western states. It also hasn't allied with the SAA, even though it could mean Russian arms.

At 41:20 roughly guy starts asking about Rojava in a positive light. A series of others criticise him and the speaker also disagrees in his summing up towards the end of the video. Wondered if anybody here would like to comment on it or in general regarding the talk on Turkey?

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